Afghan government releases hundreds of Taliban prisoners
Afghan authorities released hundreds more Taliban prisoners on Tuesday, as calls grew for the militants to extend a ceasefire beyond its third and final day.
The pause in fighting – which came into effect on Sunday to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr – was, for the most part, holding across the country, officials said.
The government responded to the Taliban's three-day ceasefire offer by announcing plans to release up to 2,000 insurgent prisoners.
On Monday, 100 were released and the government said they plan to release another 900, marking the biggest group of Taliban prisoners to be freed yet.
The exact number could vary subject to legal procedures, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal told AFP.
Abdul Wasi, 27, from Kandahar province, much of which is under Taliban control, said he was a "holy warrior" when he was detained eight years ago.
"I was told ... to [fight] until all foreign troops are driven out of our country," Wasi, sporting a long beard and wearing a traditional shirt-and-trouser shalwar kameez, told AFP moments after he was freed.
He said he was happy about the US-Taliban deal paving the way for all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan by May next year, and that he wanted a permanent ceasefire.
"If the foreign troops exit, we won't fight," he said as he boarded a Kabul-bound bus along with other freed Taliban members.
The prisoners had signed written pledges not to return to the battlefield, but Qari Mohammadullah, another freed inmate, vowed to continue fighting if foreign forces remain in Afghanistan.
Each freed inmate was given the equivalent of about $65 in Afghan currency.
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Italy Senate votes down probe over Salvini stranding migrants
An Italian Senate committee on Tuesday rejected a request by magistrates to investigate Matteo Salvini, head of the rightwing League party, for refusing a migrant rescue boat permission to land last year when he was interior minister.
Mr Salvini refused to allow a ship carrying over 100 migrants rescued at sea to land in Italy in August last year, while serving in the previous coalition government.
An Italian prosecutor eventually ordered the seizure and evacuation of the ship, operated by Spanish aid group Open Arms.
The committee rejected by 13 votes to 7 a court request to proceed with an investigation on charges of alleged kidnapping of migrants. A full upper house vote could still reverse the committee decision.
Under Italian law, former ministers cannot be tried for actions while in office without parliamentary authorisation.
"As interior minister, it was my duty to curb illegal immigration and fight human smuggling and slavery," Mr Salvini commented on Facebook after the committee's decision.
The ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and centre-left Democratic Party voted to lift Mr Salvini's immunity, while independents and senators from the right supported him.
Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's small Italia Viva coalition, which supports the government, did not vote, while one 5-Star senator voted against an investigation.
In 14 months as interior minister, Mr Salvini curbed migrant arrivals and threatened fines for rescue ships operated by independent aid groups, while pressing other European states to take in more migrants.
The Senate has already authorised magistrates to press charges over a separate but almost identical case, concerning migrants blocked aboard a coastguard ship last July.
Mr Salvini's anti-immigrant League is still Italy's strongest party with around 27 per cent support, recent polls suggest, but that approval rating has dipped during the coronavirus crisis.
Burj Khalifa lights up for Jordanian independence
Airbus experts in Karachi for plane crash probe
Pakistan announced that Airbus experts have opened a probe into last week's plane crash that killed 97 people when an Airbus A320 went down in a crowded neighbourhood near the airport in the port city of Karachi.
Initial reports have said the Pakistan International Airlines jet crashed after an apparent engine failure. Pakistani aviation authorities said on Tuesday that they have shared their initial findings with the visiting 11-member team from the European planemaker.
The Airbus experts and engineers are also to visit the crash site, according to Abdul Hafeez, a spokesman for PIA. “We are providing all possible assistance to the technical experts of Airbus,” he said.
Only two people on board survived the crash, including Zafar Masood, a bank executive.
Flight PK-8303 took off from the eastern city of Lahore and crashed on Friday while trying to land at the Karachi airport, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abdul Sattar Kokhar said.
On the ground, 18 homes were damaged, but no one was killed, mainly because the local residents were gathered at nearby mosques at the time, officials had said. Eight people on the ground were injured.
So far, Pakistan has handed over 41 bodies to their families, Mr Hafeez said, adding that DNA tests were underway to identify the remains of the other victims.
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Beyond the Headlines
India snake-bite assassin killed wife on second attempt
After first failing with a viper, an Indian man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his wife by letting loose a cobra in her room, police said Monday.
Police in the southern state of Kerala said phone records showed the man - named as Sooraj - had been in contact with serpent handlers and had also watched snake videos on the internet.
In March, the 27-year-old got hold of a highly venomous Russell's viper which bit his wife Uthra and left her in hospital for almost two months, police official Ashok Kumar told AFP.
While still recuperating at her parents' house earlier this month, Sooraj obtained a cobra from a snake handler and threw the animal at his sleeping wife.
"Sooraj stayed in the same room as Uthra as if nothing had happened. He was going about his morning routine the next day when he was alerted by Uthra's mother's screams," a police statement said.
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